Some local Catholics see name choice as a signal of change

9:50 PM,
Mar. 13, 2013

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The church was silent and virtually vacant except for Gabriel Cardoso, who quietly prayed in a small chapel off the main sanctuary.

Cardoso, a graduate student at Purdue University, had witnessed the election of Argentine Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio as the new pope and felt inclined to visit St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Center in West Lafayette to pray for the new leader.

"He named himself Francis," the 26-year-old said. "I think he's sending a signal that this time everything will be different, different decisions and ways of governing the Catholic Church." ...